Here
I was thinking that I was all geeked-out, you know, being the webmaster of
the Sci-Fi Movie Page and actually knowing who the heck Dean Cundey
and Elvin Jones are and all that.

So my wife bought me this hour-and-a-half documentary about
Star Trek fandom hosted by Denise Crosby,
who once appeared regularly on Star Trek – The
Next Generation and I realised jut what a well-balanced individual I
am. Sort of . . .

To be honest, Trekkies focuses on the more eccentric and lunatic
fringe of the whole trekkie phenomenon because . . . well, they’re more
interesting. Would you want to watch a documentary about a group of
normal, every-day, well-balanced Star Trek
fans? No, I don’t think so. So instead you get the juror who did her jury
duty during a high-profile case in her Star Trek uniform, the
dentist with the Trek theme waiting and consulting room and the fan
who considers having his ears surgically altered to resemble Mr. Spock’s.

You’ll often find yourself shouting “get a life!” at some of the people in
this documentary, but this funny, irreverent (and only occasionally
condescending) documentary would be loads of fun for the die-hard trekkie,
the occasional fan (such as myself) and even strangers to the whole fan
genre. (And if you think you’re bemused by the trekkie thing, wait till
you see the reaction of the Trek actors interviewed.)

However, the most perceptive comment in the whole documentary is that of a
stand-up comic who remarks that people who walk around in the uniform of
their favorite sports team are never frowned upon as is the case of
someone dressed up in a Trek uniform, while both are equally weird
when you think about it.

THE DISC: No trailers, no audio commentary, nothing. Not even a
trailer for Trekkies 2, which features more fandom weirdness such
as a German fan of the show whose house resembles the interior of the
Starship Enterprise.

WORTH IT? Yup. This is both eye-opening and funny stuff.

RECOMMENDATION: Buy it for the favorite geek in your life
(yourself!). It also ought to make a nice double-bill along with
Free
Enterprise, a cool romantic comedy for geeks starring William Shatner
himself . . .


Dean Cundey is a cinematographer who had his start on films by director
John Carpenter such as Escape from New York,
The Thing and Halloween. (Less
famously, he also worked on Angel’s Revenge, a very bad movie
spoofed on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Yes, I actually walk around with this sort of trivial information stored
in my brain. Sad, innit?)


Fooled you! Elvin Jones has nothing to do with sci-fi: he was a jazz
drummer who regularly played with John Coltrane who sadly recently passed
away. Rock guitarist Santana considered him the “greatest drummer ever”,
which just might have been the case.